A non-partisan blog dedicated to a discussion of politics from a social scientific perspective.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Hilary Rosen Dustup & New National Poll

Manufacturing Controversy

It is clear from the events of the last few days that America has finally solved all its problems. At least that's what I'm tempted to think given all the conversation by the chattering class about what Hilary Rosen said a couple nights ago. Mitt Romney has stated on several occasions that his wife Ann helps him to understand the issues that are important to women. Hilary Rosen attempted to cast doubt on Ms. Romney's ability to understand the economic concerns of working class women by saying that Ann Romney 'never worked a day in her life.' It was clearly a poor choice of words by Ms. Rosen that have been spun by the press and the GOP to make it sound as though Rosen was denigrating Ms. Romney for being a stay at home mom. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Ms. Rosen was just sticking to the Democratic Party line that will be a large part of the fall general election campaign argument that the Romney's are part of the 1% and as such cannot identify with the struggles of the 99%. It wasn't an attack on stay at home moms or Ann Romney. But since all of our problems have been solved, the political elites have to manufacture controversy somewhere or we just might tune them out. Perhaps we should do that anyway?

New Fox News Poll

A new national poll was released on Friday showing Mitt Romney with a 2 percentage point lead over President Barack Obama. As a result I've updated the chart posted earlier this week.

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science. My research interests include the presidency, the Congress, and institutional relationships. I'm married (Kate) with one daughter. We have two rescue hounds named Remy and Tessie, who love to get into trouble. My wife and I are the owners of the web based travel agency 'The Cruise Doctor' We love traveling to Walt Disney World and just about anywhere by cruise ship.